The Romantic Road

I've never been good at coming up with names for things.  My creativity as a child ranged from naming my teddy bear "baby" and my doll "doll".  And I'm not too sure it's a quality of mine that's gotten better with age.  But, I can't take credit for the name of one of the world's most scenic roadways, which would be on par with my creativity level.  The Romantic Road was named such by someone well before my time. Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which I've previously stated my love for, is one of many stops down the roughly 250 mile stretch of highway in Bavaria.

Since I've started to grow tired of visiting R.o.d.T each and every time I go "home" (gasp), my mom suggested I branch out a bit and see what else the Romantic Road had to offer.  More specifically, she suggested I visit Dinkelsbuhl, which is the closest village to us after Rothenburg. Plus, she stated it had the best Christmas Market in the area.

My mom had to work, so the trip to Dinkelsbuhl consisted of my brother and me.  We left 11:00am, which is usually unheard of when it comes to my 14 year old brother who sleeps in until noon (at least) when at all possible. But since we had other things we wanted to do in the afternoon, we more specifically being I, we left early enough to spend a few hours absorbing the sites of the village.

We arrived in Dinkelsbuhl 45 minutes later and made an A-line to the Christmas market.  My brother was just as excited as I was, since he had never had the Christmas market experience.  That excitement quickly left when we found that the market didn't open until 2:pm.  It was cold. Very cold. And there were only so many shops to enter in order to stay warm, as the village was less commercialized than Rothenburg.  We found enough to do to keep us occupied for an hour before we decided that the market just wasn't worth another hours wait.  One day, when it's much warmer, I'll have to give Dinkelsbuhl a second chance - because in all honesty, we let the cold keep us from truly appreciating its charm.